During orthodontic active treatment, orthodontists always find food debris and plaque accumulating around the brackets. Because of the long-term orthodontic treatment process, adverse effects such as caries and gingivitis are often noticed if patients do not keep their oral hygiene well. To ensure the quality of orthodontic treatment and to decrease the adverse effects from cleaning difficulty, the thoughts of inventing a Teflon-coated bracket that offers self-cleaning property to maintain an ideal oral hygiene came to our mind. Teflon is a kind of resin. It has unique properties such as heat-resistant, low temperature-resistant, erosion-resistant, low friction coefficient and non-stick property. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the self-cleaning effect of Teflon-coated bracket and compare the difference of attached debris and plaque between normal brackets and Teflon-coated bracket.
The study used TOMY?? Preadjusted metal non-hook canine brackets (Micro-arch, Roth type , 0.018 slot). The experiment and procedure were divided into two parts:
I.Extra-oral experiment: 40 Normal bracket and 40 Teflon-coated brackets were soaked into a sesame paste and concentrated milk, and divided into two groups: rinse in water for 10 seconds right after soaking and rinse after waiting 10 minutes. Then all the brackets were dried in the 100℃ oven for 1 minute. After all the procedures, the attachment debris was analyzed by Analytical Balance (SHIMADZU AUW120D).
II.Intra-oral experiment: There were 9 orthodontic patients for the study. 9 normal brackets and 9 Teflon-coated brackets were bonded on canines. One month later, all the brackets were applied with a disclosing agent and had their photos taken by digital camera. The images were analyzed by computer analysis program (PIA) to observe the quantity of attached plaque.
The results of the study:
1.All the Teflon-coated brackets had less attachment of debris than normal brackets.
2.Brackets that were soaked in concentrated milk had more attached debris than which soaked in the sesame paste.
3.Brackets that were rinsed in water for 10 seconds right after soaking had less attached debris than those rinse after waiting 10 minutes.
4.The quantity of the attached plaque of Teflon-coated brackets was less than normal brackets, especially in the slot area.
The Teflon-coated bracket has an excellent self-cleaning effect. It is supposed to not only help patients maintain better oral hygiene for decreasing adverse effects such as caries and gingivitis, but also offer a comfortable, effective and frictionless orthodontic tooth treatment. There will be important advancement in orthodontic clinical application.
